Month: July 2011

Last night at Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium CF Indios won their season opener against Dorados de Sinaloa by the minimal difference, a score of 1-0. The victory gives the Tribe the first 3 points of the Apertura 2011 season.

Daniel "El Gallo" Galvan scored in the 79th minute of the game when he gained possession of the ball in the left attacking sector of the field. He dribbled the ball past a couple of defenders and took the strike from inside the goal box, the ball found its way into the back of the net, giving the Indios the victory.

It has to be said that both teams appeared sluggish which made for a rather boring match. The Indios, and head coach Cesar Vega Perrone still have a lot of work ahead of them to bring this team to optimal performance. In post game commentary both the head coach and the players were in agreement with this.

Next up for the Indios they will travel to the Yucatan peninsula next weekend to face Merida. It will be interesting to see what adjustments the Indios make in the coming week en-route to their first road game of the season. Stay tuned.

Former German national team player and head coach Juergen Klinsmann has been named new Head Coach of the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team moments ago by U.S. Soccer president, Sunil Gulati. Klinsman is a legendary soccer player in Germany and helped Germany win the World Cup in 1990. He played the forward position.

In 2006, Klinsmann led Germany as head coach to a third place finish in the World Cup. That cup took place in Germany.

Since he retired as a professional soccer player Klinsmann has resided in southern California, Pomona to be exact, and has been involved with soccer development in the U.S.

A press conference will be held on Monday to make the formal introduction. Klinsmann will make his debut as head coach for the "Stars and Stripes" against Mexico on August 10th in Philadelphia.

BREAKING NEWS: U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati announced earlier this afternoon that Bob Bradley has been released as the Head Coach for the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team.

In a statement posted in the U.S. Soccer webpage, Gulati said:

"We want to thank Bob Bradley for his service and dedication to U.S. Soccer during the past five years,” said Gulati. “During his time as the head coach of our Men’s National Team he led the team to a number of accomplishments, but we felt now was the right time for us to make a change. It is always hard to make these decisions, especially when it involves someone we respect as much as Bob. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

The department of media/public relation for Manchester United announced earlier today that Mexican superstar forward Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez spent the Tuesday night in a hospital after being diagnosed with a "mild concussion".

Hernandez felt dizzy after Tuesday's practice in Red Bull Arena in New Jersey. He was monitored by Man U's medical staff, then taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed hours later. Chicharito spent the night in the hospital and is pending a safe discharge later today.

All of this happened on the eve of Manchester United's match against the MLS All-Star team that will take place tonight in Red Bull Arena.

Javier Hernandez was not expected to participate in this match as he barely returned to the team on Monday after taking a mandatory extended summer vacation. An order that came directly from Man U's head coach, Sir Alex Ferguson.

-Members of the U.S. Women's National Team were everywhere last week as they enjoyed their new found fame. Hope Solo, Abby Wambach, and Alex Morgan were on anywhere from Letterman to attending the premier of HBO's "Entourage".

-Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez met up with his club team, Manchester United on Monday in New York City. "Chicharito" and his club will take on the MLS All-Star team on Wednesday night.

-CF Indios will prepare this entire week for their opening game of the 2011 Apertura Season. The season opener will be at home against Dorados de Sinaloa on Saturday evening at Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium.

-Source close to the team have notified me that main/primary sponsor for CF Indios will be the state of Chihuahua. The main sponsor logo will be the slogan of the state which is "Chihuahua Vive". This gives an enormous and obvious hint as to who heads the new ownership group of the the club.

El Paso Chivas-Patriots tied their final regular season game yesterday to bitter division rival the Laredo Heat by a score of 0-0. This result gave the Heat the Mid-South Division title for the 2011 season.

This was a game that was bogged down for the majority of the game in midfield. Laredo made the game an ugly affair. The Heat defended first and foremost and made the match a dirty and physical affair. This made it difficult for the Patriots to get things going offensively.

Despite this result Chivas-Patriots will still advance to the playoffs, although the local side will have to travel to Mississippi for the opening round in the playoffs. A victory would have allowed them to have an opening round playoff game at home.

Best of luck to Chivas-Patriots in the playoffs. Stay tuned to Free Kicks with Joe for the latest on the Chivas-Patriots playoff run.

Here are the latest soccer bits, because after all there was more soccer going on than the U.S. Women's World Cup Final…

-Copa America semi-finals are set. It will be Peru vs. Uruguay and Venezuela vs. Paraguay. It is the first time that neither Argentina or Brazil reach the semi-finals in the history of the tournament. Both lost in the quarterfinals in penalty kick shootouts.

-2 of the 5 players that were removed from the Mexican National Soccer Team due to testing postive for banned a substance during this summer's Gold Cup have landed contracts with European clubs. Defender Francisco Rodriguez signed with Stuggart (Germany) and goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa signed with AC Ajaccio (France).

-Marco Bueno, center defender for the Mexican Under-17 team that just won the Under 17 World Cup signed and will playing for Liverpool.

- Joma will be the official outfitter of CF Indios for the 2011-2012 Apertura and Clausura seasons. Joma is an athletic brand that is based in Spain.

-Hector Espino, president of CF Indios gave an interview for Radio NET 1490 am yesterday. He gave an update on how the first day of preseason training went for the Indios in La Primavera, Jalisco. Mr. Espino has a lot to learn when it comes to talking with the media. He either sounds like he doesn't know what he is talking about or he comes off as arrogant and/or stand offish.

There is a saying in spanish with regards to soccer that translates into "whomever is forgiving in the end loses…", this was exactly the case for the U.S. women's team on Sunday afternoon. They lost to Japan in a penalty kick shootout for the 2011 World Cup.

Soccer, like life, a lot of the times is not fair. The better team doesn't necessarily always win and I think that yesterday's game was a perfect example of that.

The USWNT was surprising in that they were the ones that dominated possession and attacked for 120 minutes. The U.S. women played exactly the way they needed to shut down a Japanese side that was very disciplined and organized on the pitch.

Then came the penalty kicks.

Simply put a penalty kick shootout is nothing but luck, a coin flip, and this time the U.S. was on the losing side.

As for the scoring opportunities, there is too many to list. The game could have been signed, sealed, and delivered in the first 30 minutes of the game for the Americans. But the ball would just not go in. Hence the women showed mercy on Japan and ended up losing.

Congratulations to both the U.S. and Japan. You captivated the world by giving the perfect example of what hard work, determination and perseverance will get you. And you did it with a sense of humility that admirable. Something that most professional athletes in this country need learn.

Today soccer once again gets a chance to show America why it is the beautiful game and the U.S. Women's National Team has the responsibility of doing so.

At 12:45pm local time the U.S. will square off against Japan in FIFA's 2011 World Cup Championship. The Americans are 22-0-3 against Japan and have already beat them 3 times in the first 5 months of this year.

With these kind of the stats one would think that the U.S. women are comfortably going to go through the process en-route to their 3 FIFA World Cup Championship. However, it is slightly more complicated than that.

Japan along with the U.S. is the hottest team in the tournament. They have defeated Germany and Sweden on the road to the championship. The problem is is that they have done it in a thorough manner.

Japan has dominated ball possession in their last two games and manufactured scoring opportunities in a calm and poised fashion. The opposition can't score on you if you dont have possession of the ball. That was the bread and butter of Japan in the last two games and that is exactly what the U.S. is going to have to go up against.

I think that in order for the U.S. to overcome this they are going to have to tighten up defensively across all three lines on the pitch (offensive, midfield, and defensive).

Defensive pressure is going to have start with Abby Wambach at the forward position and follow with the midfielders. This will complicate the process of setting up the foundation for any scoring opportunities for the Japanese women.

The defensive midfielders for the U.S. are going to have to have their best game of the tournament and be highly efficient in taking the ball away from Japan in the U.S. defensive sector.

Once the U.S. has the ball they need to continue to be efficient in putting the ball in the back of the net. The U.S. has made the most of the few scoring opportunities that they have generated throughout the entire tournament. This has to be the case again today, because if Japan dominates ball possession, the U.S. scoring opportunities maybe few and far between.

Finally the U.S. is going to have to use the soccer smarts that U.S. sports fans in general hate. If they have an early lead they need to become more physical with Japan. They need to slide tackle and allow themselves to get yellow cards in proper moments of the game. A physical game on Japan will break up Japan's rhythm.

The U.S. women also have to stay down and milk the clock if they have the lead on any foul that is commited on them. Don't be surprised if Hope Solo gets a yellow card towards the end of the game for taking too much time to put the ball back in play on a goal kick.

Like it or not things like this are the icing on the cake that win World Cups.

Best of luck to the U.S. Women, win the World Cup for yourselves and for America.

While the U.S.-Japan maybe the main event with regards to soccer this weekend there are other games that are sure to help you warm up for the big event on Sunday at high noon. Right now the quarterfinals are going on in the Copa America.

Currently Peru and Columbia are playing.

After that game Argentina and Uruguay will face off.

Two of the world's greatest soccer players, Lionel Messi and Diego Forlan will suit up for their respective countries to see whom will advance to the semi-finals

The game will start at 4:00pm on Univision.

In the other game later tonight, Real Madrid will face L.A. Galaxy at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in the World Football Challenge.

This game will be broadcast on the ESPN 2, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN 3.com This game will be at 8pm local time.